[OT] What's an iPad?

[Sarah Reichelt]

On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 1:49 AM, Richmond Mathewson
<richmondmathewson at gmail.com> wrote:
>  My top 3 ideas are:
>
> 1. Swank toy.
>
> 2. Castrated computer for people who don't need laptops or PCs.
>
> 3. Tree-Free book.
>
> What are yours?  Come on you-all . . .  :0


Remember trying to explain HyperCard? Because it could do everything
but had no one specific task, it was very difficult to convince people
who like to be able to categorise. The iPad is the same - it's
whatever you want it to be.

Adam Engst's article about the "blank slate" is a good read:
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/11152>. But here is the key section:

"So what's the difference between a Mac and an iPad? It's that blank
slate thing. No matter what you do on a Mac, the keyboard and mouse
and window-based operating system make it impossible to ignore the
fact that you're using a Mac, and it's often equally impossible to
ignore the fact that you're using a particular program.

In contrast, the iPad becomes the app you're using. That's part of the
magic. The hardware is so understated - it's just a screen, really -
and because you manipulate objects and interface elements so smoothly
and directly on the screen, the fact that you're using an iPad falls
away. You're using the app, whatever it may be, and while you're doing
so, the iPad is that app. Switch to another app and the iPad becomes
that app. If that's not magic, I don't know what is."


I haven't touched one yet, so I am just theorising at this stage, but
here's my opinion: this is the first true consumer computer and is the
start of the next phase of the computer revolution. Computers are
about to move out the hands of the geeks and into the hands
(literally) of people who don't know or care about the hardware.

As developers, an iPad won't be the computer we will use for work,
because we are like car mechanics and want to tinker. Most people just
want to hop in the car and drive to the shops, and they don't care
about the technology that makes that possible - they just want it to
work reliably and easily. As developers, we  should all be embracing
the multitude of possibilities that this opens up for us.

Cheers,
Sarah

P.S. Can't spare 2 cents - saving for my iPad :-)